A young Black man from New York City divulged he kept his mental health in check by attending therapy regularly. Social media users went up for the self-aware man’s admission.
Meet Cutes NYC, a platform that documents thousands of love stories in the city, stopped a young Black couple—Denise and Remy— from inquiring about their relationship and the vicissitudes of living in NYC in an Instagram post shared Nov. 16. On therapy, Denise said she used to attend while Remy does it monthly (Denise claimed he did it weekly).
Remy shared how therapy was a challenging process but one that aimed to “overarch” issues.
“I think it’s a good place to talk about stuff that happens in my day-to-day life and also overarching issues that mess with me,” Remy commented. “It’s a journey. You can’t do it once a day, and you’ll be okay. There’s going to be moments where you don’t want to go. You don’t want to talk to your therapist, or your therapist isn’t going to be your best friend. It’s going to be hard a lot of the time if you’re doing it right.”
Meet Cutes NYC posted the video highlighting its collaboration with the NYC Health Department, which provided free therapy to the city’s teens via the Talkspace mental health app.
Remy’s attending therapy impressed commenters, with some pointing out the shocker of a Black man addressing his mental health struggles and challenging the stigmas of men in treatment. Others were also surprised to learn he took Women’s Literature during his sophomore year of high school, where the couple met.
“A young Black man in NYC going to therapy consistently to talk about the issues happening around him. Doing the work.”
“Love that he was brave enough to talk about the value of therapy and that he took a Women’s Lit class. We need more men like him.”
“What a gorgeous couple! And I admire Remy for bringing awareness about mental health and talking about getting therapy. This is so important, especially for men, since it’s such a stigma in society for men to seek help.”
According to Harvard’s affiliate McLean, a 2023 study revealed Black Americans develop mental health troubles at the rate of other people, but only 25% of Black people seek treatment compared to 40% of their white counterparts.
Regarding Black men, specifically, the National Library of Medicine found that 62% of Black men have directly experienced a traumatic event in their lifetime, 72% witnessed a traumatic event, and 59% heard about the experiences family or friends endured.
Yet only 26% of the trauma-exposed Black males in the study use mental health services. There are numerous reasons tied to the concerningly low percentage of Black men in therapy; one of the important ones is the lack of Black therapists available.
Some Black patients prefer a therapist of the same race, but McClean reported that only 2% of psychologists in America are Black.
So, it is good for Remy and his strive toward a healthy mentality. We hope more of our Black kings follow suit!
